Office politics.... ARRGGGH! We ran an anonymous post last week from someone FED UP with it. At its best it's remembering to make everyone a cup of tea. At its worst it's unpleasant backstabbing that can drive people out of a job. We crowdsourced some coping strategies. Here they are.

With local elections set to take place - followed by the EU referendum in June - communications teams in councils around the country are once again working out what they can and can't do under the purdah guidelines.

As video grows in importance there's an ever changing debate about the role it will take and how comms people can use it. We’re launching this page as a place to make sense of it all which we’ll regularly update.

Well here’s the thing. I woke up this morning and for the first time in 10-years I am not a head of comms. This is a good thing because it means I have moved on to an exciting new phase of my career.

It’s an obvious time to reflect. Has 10 years of being a head of comms made me a better comms professional? And would I recommend the role to someone else? Here’s my take on it, my top tips and answers to these two simple questions.

I have had some fantastic opportunities. Worked with some brilliant colleagues. Won over a dozen industry awards with them and learned way more than you could ever capture in a single post. I have also sat in some dreary meetings. Had to argue the case for comms, over and over and over and over, and crossed swords with some quite unpleasant people. The rough with the smooth. You know the score.

Way back in 2008 I read ‘Wikinomics’ by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, and it pretty much changed my life. At the core of Wikinomics was the idea that the large scale collaboration of people online, was going to change everything we do. The ‘phrase d’jour', was Web2.0; used a lot at the time to describe the ideas around 'online mass collaboration', including what we now recognise as social media.

It’s interesting to view how much the economic pendulum has swung since the global recession of 2009.

Back then a large part of the media’s agenda was sewn up with the big boys, the car producers, aerospace giants and the financial powerhouses would regularly adorn the pages of the nationals and the airtime of our major broadcasters.

Stories from SMEs - small, medium enterprises - did get covered, don’t get me wrong. However, more often than not they were neatly packaged away in their own special enterprise section and very rarely did they make it into mainstream news.

In the public sector, Purdah is a period in the run-up to the election where comms changes. You are not allowed to promote politicians or get involved in a political campaign. Here are some guidelines for social media and Purdah.

There’s this funny period in the run-up to an election which sees local government comms team change behaviour.

Gone are the press releases from politicians and in comes quotes from officers. Why? To ensure that the council cannot be accused of political bias in the run up to polling day.

It’s been around for decades and local government comms teams have got a pretty good grasp of what this entails. It means under The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity (Local Government Act 1986) that newsletters, press releases, conferences, badges and web pages are affected.

It's often the most badly handled part of PR. The phone call to sell-in a story to a journalist. Done badly it ends with the phone slammed down. Done well and it can help you hit the bullseye. Here are some thoughts from a master of the craft.

Call me old fashioned, but I still love the cut and thrust of the ‘pitch’ to journalists.

Admittedly, I seem to be a rather shrinking breed if recent articles and twitter conjecture is anything to go by.

And I know from experience, a lot of younger PRs view picking up the phone as appealing a prospect as relying on a London Midland train to get you to your appointment on time.

Don’t get me wrong I can understand the apprehension. I’ve been given many a ‘short shrift’ by experienced hacks, been embroiled in heated exchanges when an embargo has been broken and been left exasperated at the choice of photo the picture editor chose to be a bit ‘different’.

We've all been there. A shocking boss. A hopeless client. A journalist that gets the facts round their ear. It's the easiest thing in the world to have a bad day. But how to cope. One evening on Twitter we asked the questions and collected some interesting responses.

One of the most prized leadership attributes at the moment is resilience. In uncertain times, it can be the key survival skill. Some people assume that they just need to develop the hide of a rhinoceros and they’ll be fine.

However, a thick skin can make you insensitive to subtle changes taking place around you. To avoid extinction, it pays to know what true resilience looks like.

If you can keep your head…

As Kipling said, keep your head while all around are losing theirs. This doesn’t mean having all the answers. It does mean keeping calm in the face of uncertainty. If you can, you’re better placed to evaluate choices and options.

comms2point0.co.uk is a shared learning space, created by – and written for – creative communications professionals. Home to fresh comment, informed opinion, in depth analysis and expert feature articles, comms2point.co.uk inspires and supports communications professionals in the UK, Europe and beyond.